


My Anchor

by LucindaAM



Series: A Day in the Life [4]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Did I mention more angst?, F/M, Heavy Angst, Light Swearing, Major Character Injury, Multi, No Smut, Potential death, Teleporting powers, angst angst angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26765650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LucindaAM/pseuds/LucindaAM
Summary: Steve's injured. You go missing. Bucky's trapped in the middle.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader, Steve Rogers/Reader
Series: A Day in the Life [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946242
Comments: 15
Kudos: 94





	My Anchor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thepracticalheartmom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thepracticalheartmom/gifts).



> Based on this prompt from Thepracticalheartmom:
> 
> Character B is bleeding heavily while Character A tries to staunch the blood but Character B is more concerned about the fact that stoic character A is sobbing and panicking.

You saw the gunman aiming at Steve’s chest seconds before he fired and you blinked instinctively, but you were too late. You appeared in front of Steve just as you heard him crash to the ground behind you. Time seemed to slow as you pulled your gun from your hip, fired a single shot at the gunman and spun to a crouch next to Steve. 

You pulled at the front of his uniform. Blood was pouring down his chest and you felt a sob break from your lips. “Bucky! I need you!” You cried into comms. You leaned forward and pressed your hands against Steve’s chest, putting your weight into it as you tried to stop the bleeding. Gunshots sounded around you, but you ignored them as you looked at Steve’s drooping eyelids. “No, no, no, Rogers. You’re not allowed to tap out on me. You hear me? You’ve got to fight. This is a back alley and this bullet wound is a bully. You stand up and fight, soldier.” 

Steve’s hand reached up to grasp at your bicep weakly. “’S okay, doll.” He murmured. He coughed and blood dribbled down his chin. You shook your head. 

“You’re gonna be okay. The serum is gonna fix you up good as new.” 

Bucky screamed your name and you glanced up at him as he pulled a gun to his shoulder and fired over your head. You turned to see a gunman who’d been about to fire on you drop to the ground. 

Bucky was by your side in the next second. He gently shoved you aside and looked at the wound. He dropped to his knees and put his hands against Steve’s wound where yours had been. “I need you to go get help, sweetheart.” He said calmly. 

“Right . . . right. Help.” You murmured in a daze. 

“Now!” Bucky yelled. 

You flinched and instinctively blinked away leaving Bucky alone with Steve. 

“You can’t die on me, pal.” Bucky murmured, feeling tears well up in his eyes. “She’ll never forgive me if you don’t make it.” 

Steve shook his head and coughed, more blood coming out. “She loves ya, jerk. She’ll forgive you. And the two of you need to stick together. Don’t go pushin’ her away ‘cuz you feel guilty ‘bout this. Promise me.” 

Bucky shook his head and let tears stream freely down his face. Steve had been there from the beginning but that wound was bad. It was too close to the heart. 

“She needs you, Buck.” Steve urged again, his eyes slipping closed. 

You appeared moments later, dragging a disoriented Tony with you. Tony took a second to recover from the sudden shift in location and then he analyzed the situation. “Shit.” He cursed. He dropped to the ground and pushed Bucky aside. “I gotta get him to the jet. You two finish up here, I’ll stay with Capsicle.” 

Tony shot off into the sky with Steve in his arms. 

You turned your eyes to Bucky and panic like you’d never felt before enveloped you. You shook your head desperately as you took in his pale face and his tear stained cheeks. “No, no, no, no, no.” You mumbled backing away from him. 

Bucky took a step towards you and pulled you to his chest, he squeezed you tightly, trying to offer you the same comfort you’d given him so many times in the past. You shook your head against his chest and continued muttering, desperate to drown out whatever false platitudes he would offer because you knew. You knew the second you’d seen his stoic mask break that this was the last time you were ever going to see Steve alive. 

The pain and panic that welled up in your chest exploded and you pushed out of Bucky’s arms. “No!” You screamed, dropping to your knees. Steve had always seemed invincible. He was the one who always came back, no matter what. You couldn’t do this without him. You couldn’t. 

Bucky glanced away and let you grieve alone for a minute. He glanced across the battlefield at Nat who nodded and moved to retrieve the information you’d come for on her own. 

Bucky turned back to you. His heart sprung into overdrive as he took in your huddled form. Your outline seemed to flicker and fade and with one last quiet and heartbroken; “No.” You disappeared. 

Bucky swung around, glancing in every direction, waiting for you to reappear. You always reappeared. 

Every time, without fail. 

Except for now. 

Bucky called your name over the comms. “Has anyone seen her?” He demanded. 

A round of ‘negative’s came through the comms and Bucky raced through the battlefield, desperately searching for you. 

“We’ve got to go, Barnes. We have the files.” Sam said. 

“No.” Bucky argued, glancing around the battlefield. “I can’t. I can’t find her . . .” 

“We don't have time to wait, tinman. Steve needs to get back to base now or he’s not going to make it.” 

Bucky pulled at his hair as he was forced to make a decision. He screwed his eyes shut and prayed that you’d forgive him. “I’m on my way.” 

Bucky raced to the jet and jumped aboard seconds before it shot into the sky. He kept his eyes on the battlefield until it was out of view, hoping he’d see your form appear somewhere at the last possible second. 

It never did. 

Bucky glanced at the table in the center of the jet where Steve was laid. Banner and Sam were there, doing everything they could to bring him back. 

Bucky glanced down at his bloodstained hands and found a seat as far away from Steve as he could. He let the guilt start to fester in his soul. If only he’d been faster. If only he’d been able to comfort you. If only he wasn’t a monster, cursed to ruin the lives of everyone around him . . . 

“Hey.” A quiet voice broke through Bucky’s thoughts. Though it wasn’t the voice he most needed to hear in the moment, he was grateful to Nat for quieting the voices in his head. “He’s going to be okay.” She said, gesturing with her chin towards Steve who was lying unconscious on the table. “We got to him in time.” 

Bucky chuckled darkly and bent his head to look at the floor of the jet. “You used to be a better liar, Romanov.” He said. 

Nat sighed but didn’t say anything as she glanced around the jet. She couldn’t imagine the depths of Bucky’s despair but she owed it to you and Steve to try and pull him out of it. Still, she couldn’t think of a single thing to say as Bucky sat lost in a sea of his own despair. She sighed again and reached out a hand, putting it on Bucky’s knee in a show of comfort. 

The soldier glanced at it for a long moment before he reached out a hand and placed it on top of hers. 

The rest of the ride home was spent in silence. 

The second the jet landed, medics were rushing aboard. They took Steve and wheeled him out of the jet and into the tower. They started shouting over one another calling out vitals and orders for lifesaving medications. Dr. Cho led the crowd as she ordered the cradle to be prepped. Most of the team immediately raced after the medical staff, anxious to be close enough to get any news that the team might return with. 

Bucky stayed back, hesitating at the foot of the jet. He didn’t feel like he had any right to be in there with Steve when he’d left you out there, alone, with nothing to help you find your way back. 

Bucky’s fists clenched and he slunk back onto the jet, closing the door behind him. He slowly approached the pilot's controls and slipped into the chair. His hands brushed over the controls and the thought that he could just fly away from everything slipped into his head. He was tempted to take the jet and run away from it all. The weight of failure was pressing down on him hard enough that it was a real temptation. But something held him back. Steve’s dying words echoed through his mind on repeat; 

‘Don’t go pushin’ her away ‘cuz you feel guilty ‘bout this. Promise me.’ 

Bucky reached up and wiped his face with his sleeve. “I promise you, punk.” He murmured. 

For a long minute, Bucky sat at the controls, tempted to fly the jet back to the battlefield to search for you but in the end, the choice was taken from him. 

“Manchurian Candidate, Mr. Rogers is awake and is requesting your presence in the medical bay.” JARVIS said. 

Bucky’s head shot up. “He’s okay?” He asked. 

“As well as can be expected. Shall I tell him you’re on your way?” 

“Yeah. Yeah, thanks.” 

Bucky burst out of the jet and raced to medical. He slowed to a stop just outside Steve’s room, waiting as Steve finished talking to Natasha. Nat spotted Bucky in the doorway and said something to Steve before she slipped out, sending a half a smile in the Winter Soldier’s direction. 

Bucky slipped in and smiled softly at Steve. “Hey, punk. How ‘ya feelin’?” 

Steve smiled. “Feel like a million bucks.” He glanced behind Bucky and called your name. He frowned and glanced at his friend. 

Bucky’s fists clenched and unclenched. “I . . . don’t know.” He admitted. 

Steve shot up in bed, wincing in pain. “What?!” 

Bucky took a step back, shaking his head. “She . . . she just disappeared.” 

“She does that.” Steve acknowledged, trying to remain calm. 

“But she never reappeared.” 

Steve went ghostly pale sat heavily down on his bed. Bucky took a step forward. “Stevie?” He asked softly. 

Steve shook his head in a daze. “She . . . she’s gone?” He asked. 

Bucky reached the side of the bed and grasped Steve’s shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll find her. She always comes back right?” He asked. 

Steve nodded slowly. “Yeah. Of course. Always.” He didn’t sound so sure. 

Bucky slipped out of the room and went to track down Natasha at Steve’s insistence. “Have you heard anything?” He asked, desperate. The more time that passed the more worried he was that you had simply given up the will to live and disappeared forever. 

Nat shook her head. “Tony . . . Tony’s looking for her.” She hedged. Bucky waited impatiently for the rest of it and Nat sighed. “Maybe you should sit down.” 

Bucky swallowed hard at the worry on Nat’s face. He’d never once, in all the time he’d known her, had she ever looked worried before. 

Bucky slid into a chair and stared at his clenched hands. 

Natasha sighed and stared at blankly at the table. “She passes through another dimension when she teleports. Time passes differently there. It’s . . . the pull that it has on her . . . for her to stay here she has to have an anchor. Something to pull herself back here and Steve . . .” 

“He was her anchor.” Bucky finished. A sick feeling of loss flooded his system. You’d thought Steve was dead. 

You weren’t going to come back. 

He was never going to see you again. 

Just like that, Bucky’s world shattered around him. 

Natasha was saying something else but Bucky merely shook his head and pushed to his feet. He shook his head as she tried to comfort him. Tears fell down his cheeks and he moved robotically through the tower. His feet seeming to know where to take him when his mind didn’t. Bucky wanted nothing more than for the earth to open up and swallow him whole but the twisted sense of humor that was the universe forced him to continue moving, one step in front of the other until he got to the apartment that still smelled like you. 

Bucky barely made it through the door before memories of you and the sense of home that you’d created for him brought him to his knees. 

Memories of HYDRA, memories of you, memories of Steve – they all played on a loop in his head and he felt like he was drowning. 

Bucky closed his eyes and wished to God that he’d never been born. 

For hours, he knelt in the doorway, unable to move. The visions of you grew stronger. The ways that you would smile when you said his name; “Bucky.” The way you’d bring him back from his nightmares; “Bucky, come back to me. Please.” The smell of you, happiness and sunshine. The feel of your hands on his face. 

Bucky’s eyes flew open and suddenly, there you were. His vision brought to life. “Bucky.” You cried, tears forming in your eyes as he looked into them. 

You drew your hands away from his face and flung yourself into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. “You’re . . . you’re real?” Bucky asked. 

You nodded against his cheek. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” You murmured over and over again. 

Bucky pulled you away so he could wipe the tears from your cheeks and brush your hair out of your face. “No. No, doll. You got nothin’ to be sorry for.” 

“I left you.” You cried. 

Bucky shook his head vehemently. “You found me, though. You found me, doll. You did.” 

You let out a choked chuckled and pressed your hand against his chest, letting his heartbeat calm your frazzled nerves. “Course I did, Sarge. You’re my . . . “ 

“Anchor.” You finished together. 

Bucky looked up at you with wonder in his eyes. You couldn’t help yourself as you leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. 

Bucky breathed you in, but didn’t chase after you when you pulled away. He wanted to, oh how desperately did he want to, but it wasn’t the time. 

“Come on, doll.” He said, drawing you forward. “I think there’s someone that wants to see you.” 

You held onto his hand tightly as he gently guided you through the tower and towards medical. 

He opened Steve’s door and gestured you inside. You gasped as you caught sight of Steve and raced forward. Steve grunted as you jumped on him but he let out a breath of relief as you attacked his face with kissed. 

Bucky stood in the doorway and smiled as the two of you were reunited. Steve glanced over at him and raised an eyebrow. Bucky paused for a minute before he nodded once and just like that three lives were changed forever. 

Two anchors were better than one.


End file.
